Four days before a court-imposed deadline, Westchester County has met and exceeded the core obligations of its 2009 settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, county officials said.
During a Dec. 27 press conference, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, announced that the county had financed and arranged building permits for more than 750 affordable housing units in its 31 of its predominately Caucasian communities, surpassing a benchmark set in a 2009 settlement with HUD. Astorino said that the county has financing and permits in place for 790 units, with additional provisions in place to build at least 100 more units in 2017.
In 2006, the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, ADC, sued Westchester for collecting annual federal block grant money to promote fair housing, and not doing enough to respond to housing needs in its communities. According to the 2010 census, the county population is 15 percent African-American and 22 percent Hispanic; but several municipalities within the county had less than 2 percent of an African-American population and less than 5 percent Hispanic population.
Facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit, the county—under the direction of former County Executive Andy Spano, a Democrat—agreed to settle the case by promoting affordable housing in 31 of its communities, including building at least 750 units and analyzing zoning laws in a seven-year period.
During his press conference, Astorino, who fought the settlement after defeating Spano and taking office in 2010, maintained his position that the population disparity was a result of economics and not discriminatory zoning practice.
But Craig Gurian, executive director of the ADC, told the Review, “The county executive’s statement, as usual, is breathtakingly dishonest.” According to the ADC, some of the units that Westchester built do not comply with the terms of the settlement, which mandates that the county prepare at least 630 units in municipalities with the lowest minority populations. According to the ADC, the county only prepared 283 units in those areas. “When you exclude the cheating units, the county is actually hundreds of units short,” Gurian added.
Ultimately, the decision to accept or refute those units lies with U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Denise Cote.
“I couldn’t care less, really, what the ADC has to say at this point,” Astorino said in the county press office in White Plains. “I’m just concerned about making sure we finish the terms of the settlement and that we move on.”
The county will still have to meet additional requirements outlined in the settlement before concluding the decade-long saga with HUD. The county must get approval from HUD on its efforts to advertise the affordable housing market; it says it has spent more than $1 million on advertising and outreach, more than double what was required in the settlement. Westchester will also need HUD to sign off on an analysis of impediments, AI, to fair housing. The county has already submitted eight AIs, each of which had found that Westchester’s zoning was not racially exclusionary. HUD rejected all eight of the AIs, claiming they were inadequate.
In July 2016, Cote, who has been overseeing the case, ruled that Westchester would need to hire a consultant to oversee the ninth AI. According to Astorino, that AI is being reviewed by a consultant and will be released in mid-January.
“We scrubbed everyone’s zoning code, even the communities that were not part of the settlement,” Astorino said. “And we found that everyone, in their various ways, permitted multi-family housing—permitted affordable housing.”
Astorino, locked in a contentious battle over housing for years, reiterated his criticism of the federal government, which has often suggested that Westchester should sue individual municipalities which were not doing enough to promote affordable housing or had exclusionary zoning. “We have shown that Westchester is… a county that can successfully and firmly stand up to an overzealous and overaggressive federal government on behalf of our cities, towns and villages,” he said.
Last May, a HUD-appointed monitor overseeing the county’s adherence to the settlement recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice should take legal action against seven of the 31 municipalities which he felt were not complying with the settlement. That monitor, James Johnson, resigned in August before announcing his plans to primary for the Democratic nomination for governor of New Jersey this year. The housing department has not appointed Johnson’s replacement; and Astorino said he has asked the Department of Justice to forego appointing one. “Given the county’s progress, the county has told the U.S. attorney that we do not think a new monitor is necessary at this point,” he said. “And, so, we feel very strongly that if a new monitor is appointed—and we see no reason why one should be—that that choice should be that of the incoming secretary of HUD, Dr. Ben Carson, and not Julian Castro, who is on his way out.”
Astorino said that he plans to speak with Carson, a fellow Republican, once he is officially appointed as HUD administrator this month, and that the two had already discussed the settlement in June before Carson was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican. He added that he also spoke to Trump about the settlement in June.
“It’s time for a conclusion,” Astorino said. “As the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said, ‘At some point in time this litigation has to be ended.’ That time should be near.”
Alexander Roberts, co-founder of the Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition, told the Review that the county can continue to do more to promote zoning for affordable and multi-family housing. “I would like to see [the county] continue the interest in getting the affordable and fair housing that we need in this county to continue to grow,” Roberts said. “It’s not just a racial issue or equity issue. It’s an issue of failure to allow the free market in housing to operate.”
County lawmakers said they are looking ahead to promoting affordable housing when the settlement is over. Legislator Catherine Borgia, an Ossining Democrat, said the Democratic caucus had appropriated funds in the 2016 and 2017 budgets to perform a housing needs analysis. “We need to utilize smart data to make sure we can meet housing for seniors, young professionals, and new families in order to increase our economic growth and viability,” she said.
And Legislator John Testa, a Yorktown Republican, added that the county would continue to develop affordable housing going forward, on its own. “It will be a much more positive and productive endeavor without the federal government’s interference,” he added.
